Phil Crosby Quotes & Sayings

It isn't what you find, it's what you do about what you find. — Phil Crosby

Being convinced one knows the whole story is the surest way to fail. — Phil Crosby

Quality is such an attractive banner that sometimes we think we can get away with just waving it, without doing the hard work necessary to achieve it. — Phil Crosby

Quality is free. It's not a gift, but it's free. The 'unquality' things are what cost money. — Phil Crosby

Improving quality requires a culture change, not just a new diet. — Phil Crosby

We can spend our whole lives underachieving. — Phil Crosby

You have to lead people gently toward what they already know is right. — Phil Crosby

If anything is certain, it is that change is certain. The world we are planning for today will not exist in this form tomorrow. — Phil Crosby

If we deliver on time, but the product has defects, we have not delivered on time. — Phil Crosby

Quality has to be caused, not controlled. — Phil Crosby

People are conditioned to believe that error is inevitable ... However, we do not accept the same standard when it comes to our personal life. If we did, we would resign ourselves to being shortchanged now and then when we cash our paychecks. We would expect hospital nurses to drop a certain percentage of all newborn babies. We would expect to go home to the wrong house periodically. As individuals we do not tolerate these things. Thus we have a double standard, one for ourselves, one for the company. — Phil Crosby

You are going to be measured anyway by some means, fair or foul. Usually the one doing the measuring has nothing specific in mind; so he does it by the seat of his pants. Careers are destroyed in this manner. — Phil Crosby

When you're out of quality, you're out of business. — Phil Crosby

In a true zero-defects approach, there are no unimportant items. — Phil Crosby

You don't have to be noisy to be effective. — Phil Crosby

Quality management is needed because nothing is simple anymore, if indeed it ever was. — Phil Crosby

Change should be a friend. It should happen by plan, not by accident. — Phil Crosby

Successful people breed success. — Phil Crosby

Quality is the result of a carefully constructed cultural environment. It has to be the fabric of the organization, not part of the fabric. — Phil Crosby

The audience only pays attention as long as you know where you are going. — Phil Crosby

No one can remember more than three points. — Phil Crosby

The customer deserves to receive exactly what we have promised to produce - a clean room, a hot cup of coffee, a nonporous casing, a trip to the moon on goassamer wings. — Phil Crosby

We must define quality as conformance to specifications if we are to manage it. — Phil Crosby

The cost of quality is the expense of doing things wrong. — Phil Crosby

A rule to live by: I won't use anything I can't explain in five minutes. — Phil Crosby

It is always cheaper to do the job right the first time. — Phil Crosby

Most things don't work like they are supposed to work. — Phil Crosby

Eliminating what is not wanted or needed is profitable in itself. — Phil Crosby

Slowness to change usually means fear of the new. — Phil Crosby

It is not possible to know what you need to learn. — Phil Crosby

When in doubt, delete it. — Phil Crosby

Selecting the right person for the right job is the largest part of coaching. — Phil Crosby

Problems breed problems, and the lack of a disciplined method of openly attacking them breeds more problems. — Phil Crosby

Many managers feel, somewhat cynically, that people are being paid to do their jobs and that's that. This attitude reflects an insensitivity to people that is a trademark of many hockey-style managers. — Phil Crosby

Making a wrong decision is understandable. Refusing to search continually for learning is not. — Phil Crosby

Very few of the great leaders ever get through their careers without failing, sometimes dramatically. — Phil Crosby

The great discoveries are usually obvious. — Phil Crosby